French 'right to die' woman committed suicide: autopsy

A French woman who had sought the legal right to commit suicide to end the suffering caused by an incurable and disfiguring cancer killed herself with sleeping tablets, authorities say.

Chantal Sebire, 52, whose face was distorted by a rare cancer of the sinus, was found dead in her home in eastern France last week, shortly after a court ruled that a doctor could not be allowed to help her die.

Her case sparked a widespread debate about the ethics of assisted suicide, which is illegal in France but permitted in some circumstances in some neighbouring countries including Switzerland and Belgium.

The state prosecutor in the eastern city of Dijon says toxicological examinations of Sebire's body revealed the presence of powerful barbiturates.

"It is possible to say today that Madame Chantal Sebire did not die a natural death, but by absorbing a lethal dose of barbiturates, as the autopsy has shown," Jean-Pierre Alacchi said.

He told the daily Le Monde that an investigation might be opened to establish whether she had been assisted in her suicide but he said he would not lose sight of the "human dimension" of the case.

"I'm not looking for a guilty person at any cost but we have to know what happened," he said.

According to a recent survey, nine out of 10 French people said they were in favour of allowing doctors to end the life of patients suffering from incurable and painful diseases if the patient requested it.

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